I left work late yesterday, about 8:00 or so. I walked out of my office, and immediately found myself in the middle of a huge crowd of protestors. On further examination, I realized that the protestors were supporters and followers of Falun Gong, a Chinese religious movement. Now, I don’t know a lot about Falun Gong. I do live in Washington, D.C., so I’ve been aware of protests by Falun Gong members in the Dupont Circle area for the past seven or eight years, but I never really learned much about the movement itself.
But the protest impressed me. The people were organized, quiet, and peaceful. While there were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of protestors on the sidewalks, none of them were in the streets, and everyone moved aside to let me walk peacefully to the Metro. It was kind of like walking through Woodstock, Lilith Fair, or the HFStival with the sound turned off.
As I walked, the posters and pictures the protestors were carrying piqued my interest. Pictures of people whose bodies had been torn apart. Signs with allegations of brutal punishment, torture, and even organ harvesting at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. One of the leaflets being passed out claimed that thousands of Falun Gong members had been taken from their prison camp – just before a U.S. inspector showed up, coincidentally enough – and were herded onto rail cars and sent to other camps in China to avoid detection.
As I walked further into the crowd, I came upon a circle of people, maybe 20-30 strong, seated in the lotus position on the ground. They were doing these beautiful hand movements that I have since learned are part of Falun Gong’s physical regimen. My eye was drawn to one protestor – a young boy, maybe 10 or 11 – who wasn’t moving quite the same way. When I walked closer to him, I realized he was missing his left arm.
Nothing in this boy’s face betrayed the obvious pain he’d gone through. His features were as calm and beatific as a saint in church. It broke my heart.
But I kept on walking. There was nothing else I could do. At least not then. But I wanted to write about it.
Now, I don’t have any independent verification of the allegations these Falun Gong protestors were making. And I’m well aware that many people – some of whom have a vested economic interest in continued U.S.-Chinese relations -- ridicule the group as nothing more than a radical cult. But I know the people and the pictures that I saw. And I’m doing my own research now to figure out just what’s going on.
Maybe they are a cult. Maybe not. But, at the very least, the people that were protesting peacefully in front of the White House yesterday evening (and all day today, for that matter) didn’t look like a threat to me, and certainly didn’t warrant any persecution from the Chinese Communist Party. So why is it happening?
I’m sure this write-up will be extremely unpopular with anyone in China, so let the Chinese downvotes begin.
Oh, wait. I’m sorry. Nobody in China could possibly see this writeup because the Web and all of the search engines in China – including Google – are censored by the Chinese Communist Party. Too bad.